PH banking system’s total deposits reach P16.2T in 2021 –PDIC
The Philippine banking system saw total deposits grow by 9% to P16.2 trillion in 2021, higher than the P14.9 trillion recorded in 2021 as the economy recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) said yesterday.
In a new release, the PDIC said the expansion was “driven primarily by deposits with balances of above P5.0 million in terms of size of account and non-term deposits in terms of type of deposits.”
Likewise, the number of domestic deposit accounts grew by 8.8% to 87.1 million in 2021 from 80.1 million accounts registered in 2020, it said.
The PDIC said deposits with balances of P5,000 and below, and savings deposits mostly accounted for the increase in the number of domestic deposit accounts.
The deposits insurer said that deposits with balances of above P5.0 million contributed 85.2% or P1.1 trillion to the annual expansion of domestic deposits.
By type of deposits, the PDIC said demand and savings posted annual increases at 17.6% and 9.5%, respectively.
These two deposit types accounted for the entire growth in domestic deposits, according to the deposits insurer.
Long-term negotiable certificates of deposit and time deposits, however, contracted by 5.9% and 1.4%, respectively, exerting downward pressure on the overall domestic deposit growth, it said.
“While the pandemic may have been an unpleasant wake-up call for many Filipinos, it has highlighted the importance of saving for the future and emergencies. With more banks offering basic deposit accounts, saving money in banks becomes much easier and practical,” said PDIC president Roberto Tan.
With the growth in domestic deposits, the PDIC said insurance up to the maximum deposit insurance coverage of P500,000 per depositor per bank expanded by 3.0% in 2021 from a year ago to P3.2 trillion, representing 19.5% of the total domestic deposits.
The PDIC noted that the deposit insurance system fully covered 96.8% or 84.3 million of domestic deposit accounts, higher by 8.9%
from the 77.4 million fully covered domestic deposits accounts in 2020.
As of December 31, 2021, the Philippine banking system had 506
banks, comprising 413 rural banks, 47 thrift banks, and 46 commercial banks, including 24 branches of foreign banks, the deposits insurer said.
Banks licensed to operate in the Philippines by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) are members of the PDIC.